People just to let you know.. SALMONS WILL NOT PLAY QUALITY MINUTES! Out of all the rookies on the roster, the only one that will get quality minutes is Efthimos Rentzias, the rest of the guys will be riding pine, getting scattered minutes here and there.. because that's the way Larry Brown and Billy King like to do it.
Rotation will be stuck at:
Snow, Iverson, Buckner, Coleman, Mutombo
Trust me people when I say that Buckner, will be given the nod at SF, just like Harpring was last year. He's not as good as McKie, but McKie is proven to be more effective coming off the bench and sharing minutes.
So off the bench it'd be in this order:
-McKie
-Williams
-Rentzias
-Jones
-Dalembert (???)
???- Don't know if Larry will trust him with quality minutes, even though with the way things are it's best to let him learn out on the court.
So that's a ten man rotation (maybe nine), and knowing Brown, for long points in the season it'll be cut down to maybe 8, or less allowing for the starters to get injured.
Sad thing is guys like, Brown, Salmons, Clancy, Holcomb all would probably give a boost off the bench, but they won't use them. Just like they refused to bring in Raja Bell to guard Paul Pierce in the series against Boston, sometimes they take inexperience as a weakness, when in many cases it's a strength.. having a young player out there eager to make the big play.
Unless something drastic happens.. we'll be repeating an early exit in the playoffs. Since all we did was replace Bell (Buckner), and McKey (Williams).
We need a legitimate post up player, but we don't have that, and maybe if we're smart and don't trade DC, we can wait until his contract comes off the books, as well as Matt Harpring so we can throw money out there for someone in the 2003 market.
-Tim